She plays a 16-year-old peasant girl in search of happiness on the smash Mexican soap opera "Marimar," now airing weeknights on KMEX-TV Channel 34. But a poor peasant girl is not all that 22-year-old Thalia plays. Off the set, she also plays a sex goddess--and does so well enough to have become the throbbing hub of an entertainment empire spanning movies, television and music.

For foster children, the prospect of ever completing college is remote: 24% of the general population will someday wear a university cap and gown, but fewer than 3% of all foster children ever earn a degree. But a privately funded pilot program at UCLA hopes to improve the odds. The First Star UCLA Bruin Guardian Scholars Summer Academy is a 5 1/2-week program that sponsors and fundraisers hope will one day develop into a year-round boarding school for college-bound foster children in Los Angeles County.

For foster children, the prospect of ever completing college is remote: 24% of the general population will someday wear a university cap and gown, but fewer than 3% of all foster children ever earn a degree. But a privately funded pilot program at UCLA hopes to improve the odds. The First Star UCLA Bruin Guardian Scholars Summer Academy is a 5 1/2-week program that sponsors and fundraisers hope will one day develop into a year-round boarding school for college-bound foster children in Los Angeles County.

Because she represents the joys of Latin pop in all its inconsequential glory, Thalia is the kind of artist who should be treated with a light touch rather than a heavy hand. Sure enough, the Mexican singer's extravagant show Friday at the Universal Amphitheatre delivered a fluffy assortment of suggestive dance routines, colorful wardrobe changes and a slick wall of sound that was equally informed by crunchy arena-rock, routine hip-hop and bubbly electronica.

Because she represents the joys of Latin pop in all its inconsequential glory, Thalia is the kind of artist who should be treated with a light touch rather than a heavy hand. Sure enough, the Mexican singer's extravagant show Friday at the Universal Amphitheatre delivered a fluffy assortment of suggestive dance routines, colorful wardrobe changes and a slick wall of sound that was equally informed by crunchy arena-rock, routine hip-hop and bubbly electronica.

December 1, 1987 | DEBORAH CAULFIELD and RICK SHERWOOD, Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

Connie Stevens will portray Thalia Menninger--a role originally played by Tuesday Weld--in Disney's coming TV movie "Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis." Dwayne Hickman, Bob Denver and Sheilah James, stars of the classic 1959-63 TV series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," have announced their planned return. Thalia, trivia buffs might remember, was the Central High School beauty with whom Dobie was madly in love.

Kidnappers have released a sister of pop singer and actress Thalia after holding her for more than a month, Mexican officials said. Ernestina Sodi was freed Saturday, said Genaro Garcia Luna, director of the Federal Agency of Investigations. She was kidnapped along with her sister Laura Zapata on Sept. 22. Zapata was released Oct. 10. Both are sisters of Thalia, who is married to Sony Music Entertainment Chairman Tommy Mottola.

Will Quadflieg, 89, who was one of Germany's best-known postwar stage actors and who starred as Faust in the 1960 film of the same name, died Nov. 27, Hamburg's Thalia Theater announced. The cause of death was not reported. Quadflieg also played composer Franz Liszt in the film "Lola Montes." His acting career began in 1933 and continued in Germany during the Nazi era.

Police have arrested three suspected members of a kidnapping ring believed responsible for abducting the sisters of Mexican pop singer Thalia, the Justice Department said. The statement said the gang is believed to have kidnapped actress Laura Zapata and her sister, writer Ernestina Sodi. The sisters were released weeks later, and Zapata has indicated that her family paid a ransom but has not disclosed the amount.

A three-hour concert to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Tejano singing star Selena has been set for Houston's Reliant Stadium this spring. Gloria Estefan and Thalia are among the performers who will participate in the event, to be broadcast live April 7 by the Univision Network. Houston was the site of Selena's final concert. She was fatally shot at a Corpus Christi, Texas, motel in March 1995.

She plays a 16-year-old peasant girl in search of happiness on the smash Mexican soap opera "Marimar," now airing weeknights on KMEX-TV Channel 34. But a poor peasant girl is not all that 22-year-old Thalia plays. Off the set, she also plays a sex goddess--and does so well enough to have become the throbbing hub of an entertainment empire spanning movies, television and music.

In this town, where people live and die by who's hot and who's not, the tabloids and blogs aren't the only arbiters. Spotted recently on shelves at 99 Cents Only Stores and Big Lots locations: Donald Rumsfeld talking doll * Official beanie of the "American Chopper" reality show * Jack Osbourne key chain * "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" retrospective calendar * Thalia "Hot and Spicy" Jolly Rancher lollipops

The title, "Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis " (Channels 2 and 8, Sunday at 9 p.m.) is a tip-off to the tone of this reunion for the cast of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," the CBS sitcom from the late '50s and early '60s. This is no valentine to the comforts of small-town Americana. Instead, this small town's placid Midwestern facade has been invaded by raucous doses of Borscht Belt humor and big city cynicism. Much of the humor is just plain silly, but some of it is shamelessly funny.